Hughton’s always looking at the table in battle to stay up

Albion boss Chris Hughton admits he looks at the Premier League table every week as he bids to keep the Seagulls in the top flight.

While admitting the table only takes significance later in the season, Hughton is keen to remain out of the bottom three.

After Saturday’s 3-1 victory against West Brom, Brighton sit 14th in the Premier League ahead of tonight’s trip down the south coast to Bournemouth.

Hughton said: “Although your concentration is not on the table, you look at the table every week, of course you do.

“Certainly for us the most important thing is to make sure we are out of that bottom three.

“When does it take significance? I suppose you are looking well into the season, but you are judging it week in and week out.

“We know and expect it to be a tough season, that’s normal. There will be lots of ups and downs and probably more than the table will be how we react to defeats, poor performances, and go again to try to pick up a good result.

“It’s a very difficult question, because the league table is always there. You don’t want to be in that bottom three. When it takes real significance is certainly well into the season.”

Bournemouth are yet to pick up a point this season but Hughton says it is too early in the season to head to the Vitality Stadium and to just look to keep the four point gap between the sides.

He said: “All we’re thinking about is making sure we can be in every game we play.

“On a bad day in this division you can get well and truly turned over but thankfully so far that hasn’t been the case. The four games we’ve played, I feel we’ve been right in them. That’s probably the most important thing for me at this moment.

“If you can stay in games for as long as you can, then you know along with that will come results.”

Hughton hopes Albion can take the confidence from their first Premier League win into the match and said: “I’m hoping that we can take that into the game.

“It will be very tough, it’s a tough place to go on a Friday night under the floodlights, but I just hope we can take some of that confidence from Saturday’s game.”